Enough is enough
by Tostie
Summary: AU fourth year one shot (possible future sequel) – During Harry Potter's years at Hogwarts he had a couple of less than pleasant experiences. What would happen if Harry had finally enough after an incident in his fourth year– covers the entire fourth year – minor Harry/OFC


**Enough is enough**

**Summary: AU fourth year one shot**** (possible sequel)**** – During Harry Potter's years at Hogwarts he had a co****u****ple of less than pleasant experiences. What would happen if Harry had finally enough after an inc****i****dent in his fourth year– covers the entire fourth year – minor Harry/OFC**

Harry Potter was pissed, scratch that he had gone beyond that point some time ago.

To say this year hadn't gone well would be a mild understatement. It had started so well with going to the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasley family and Hermione, but things quickly went downhill when he arrived at Hogwarts as Dumbledore announced the Tri-wizard tournament.

While he had been just as excited as Ron when he heard about it, somewhere in the back of his mind he knew something bad was going to happen again.

This was proven when the Champions were chosen on Halloween eve (did they really had to tempt fate like that) as he was chosen as the fourth Champion.

What followed after he was chosen was a meeting where he was basically was told he had to compete and should be honoured that he was chosen.

When the DADA teacher brought up the point that someone might kill him he was basically written off immediately. Harry thought the man might not be too far of the mark, after all this was hardly the first time some wanted to kill him. So how could they disregard it so easily?

They were then dismissed and Harry made his way over to the Gryffindor tower where he was given a hero's welcome. They didn't listen when he told them he hadn't entered himself, but Harry could accept that, after all he knew he wasn't the most social person and so most of them didn't know him personally.

But then when he entered his dorm he was confronted by his 'best friend' Ron Weasley and it turned out he didn't believe him either! He was supposed to be his best friend! He should know him well enough that he wouldn't lie about this!

Fortunately for his sanity his other best friend at least believed him and Harry was extremely grateful for that.

This had temporary improved his mood, that is until it takes a turn for the worse moments later when Hermione reveals that Ron actually does believe him, but is so jealous that he says to opposite.

This angered Harry greatly. Ron was jealous? The same Ron who had a loving family? The same Ron who still had his parents? The one who was raised with love? What Harry wouldn't have given to have been in his position .…

His temper did not improve in the next couple of days as first Hedwig got angry at him and then practically three quarter of Hogwarts shunned him and started making snide remarks to him. It didn't help that Trelawney was predicting his death practically every lesson and his normal schoolwork wasn't going well either as he just couldn't concentrate.

It all came to a boiling point when he arrived at Double Potions, two weeks after he was chosen as champion.

He had the lessons with the Slytherins and that alone spelled trouble, as they led by Malfoy tried to make his life even more miserable.

It didn't take long for him to proven right as the moments the members of the snake house saw him Malfoy started to taunt him by showing him some badge that most of his fellow housemates wore.

The Badges originally showed ' SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY-THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION!' and Harry didn't really minded that after all Cedric was Hogwarts champion, but then Malfoy tapped his badge and the text changed into. '' POTTER STINKS!''

Now normally such a pathetic insult wouldn't have angered him, but with his current state of mind his anger only grew.

And then when Hermione defended him and Malfoy called her a Mudblood something just snapped and his wand was out almost immediately.

"Funnunculus!" Harry yelled almost immediately.

Malfoy apparently had expected this action as he already had his wand out and screamed. "Densaugeo!"

Jets of light shot from both wands, hit each other in mid-air, and ricocheted off at angles - Harry's hit Goyle in the face, and Malfoy's hit Hermione. Goyle bellowed and put his hands to his nose, where great ugly boils were springing up - Hermione, whimpering in panic, was clutching her mouth.

"Hermione!"

Ron had hurried forward to see what was wrong with her; Harry turned and saw Ron dragging Hermione's hand away from her face. It wasn't a pretty sight. Hermione's front teeth - already larger than average - were now growing at an alarming rate; she was looking more and more like a beaver as her teeth elongated, past her bottom lip, toward her chin - panic-stricken, she felt them and let out a terrified cry.

"And what is all this noise about?" said a soft, deadly voice.

Snape had arrived in all his menacing glory and he pointed a long yellow finger at Malfoy and said, "Explain."

"Potter attacked me, sir -"

"We attacked each other at the same time!" Harry shouted.

"- and he hit Goyle - look -"

Snape examined Goyle, whose face now resembled something that would have been at home in a book on poisonous fungi.

"Hospital wing, Goyle," Snape said calmly.

"Malfoy got Hermione!" Ron said. "Look!"

He forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth - she was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had now grown down past her collar.

Snape looked coldly at Hermione, then said, "I see no difference."

Hermione let out a whimper; her eyes filled with tears, she turned on her heel and ran, ran all the way up the corridor and out of sight.

And this brings us back to the present; a very pissed of Harry.

XxX

Harry couldn't believe it he knew from his first potions lesson that Snape wasn't the nicest person to be around and that was putting it very mildly, but this was going too far, it was one thing to verbally abuse someone, but not even checking up on someone who was hit by a spell?

This injustice combined with his already extremely foul mood made him do something that many students would classify as idiotic as he started to scream at Snape.

It was luck, perhaps that Ron who by his very nature had an even shorter fuse than Harry started to scream at Snape too.

Due to their simultaneously screaming in the stone corridor, it was impossible for Snape to hear exactly what they were calling him. He got the gist, however.

"Let's see," he said, in his silkiest voice. "Fifty points from Gryffindor and a detention each for Potter and Weasley. Now get inside, or it'll be a week's worth of detentions."

Harry started at Snape for a moment with a look of absolute loathing before he turned around and followed the path Hermione had taken just moments before. There was absolutely no way that he was going to allow his only remaining friend to walk up to the hospital with her still growing teeth's while he had to listen to the Greasy git's lessons.

''That is a month detention Potter!'' Snape shouted after him, but Harry barely heard him as he had started to sprint in attempt to catch up with Hermione.

XxX

Harry had managed to catch up to Hermione in minutes, by now her teethes had grown long enough that she had some difficulty walking.

Harry had to force himself to calm down as he saw the state his friend was in. Helping Hermione was more important now.

Hermione's teeth by now had grown so far that it was impossible for her to speak, but the look she gave him was more than enough. She was grateful her friend had come after her.

XxX

Harry managed to escort Hermione to the Hospital wing without encountering to many students, something which he was grateful for.

Once he had explained the situation to the school nurse, Madame Pomfrey, Harry was requested to leave so that the healer could be alone with her patient.

XxX

Standing outside of the hospital wing Harry wasn't sure what to do. He had zero intentions of going to his potions class and facing Snape.

Heck now Hermione was safe he felt his supressed anger returning and it would probably be a better idea if he avoided everyone since he would probably snap badly at the next person he saw.

The problem was despite Hogwarts large size there were few if any places where there wouldn't be a chance that he would encounter anyone.

No, there was one place he knew for sure where he wouldn't be bothered. It was the Chamber of Secrets, the one place in the castle that was only accessible for Parselmouths.

Harry hadn't entered it since he had saved Ginny in his second year partially because he dint want to be reminded that he was Parselmouth and partially because he nearly died there.

But currently his need to be alone won over and he made his way over to girls bathroom where the entrance was located.

XxX

Fifteen minutes later found Harry staring at the carcass of the once great beast that had nearly killed him.

Looking at that thing made it really sink in just how close he got to death and he suddenly felt overwhelmed by it all. He nearly died here … and then there were the other times …and now he is in a tournament where a lot of students have died and almost no one seemed to care ….

Sliding down against the wall he had been leaning against Harry sat down his anger subdued as he thought about just how often he nearly had died over the years.

Harry had been so happy to get away from his relatives that he never even considered just how often he had been put in danger since he came here, the supposed safest place in Britain. While he might not have had a happy childhood at the Dursleys at the very least he never was in mortal danger there.

Harry briefly indulged himself in a fantasy about how his life would be now if he hadn't had received his Hogwarts letter and started attending Stonewall High. Maybe with his cousin out of the picture he could have made some friends and live a normal life where he wasn't constantly gapped at or put in mortal peril.

Harry shook his head he shouldn't think about 'what if's' the here and now were far more important.

In little over a week he had to take part of a task that was the cause of death of students before and if that little scuffle this morning showed anything then that is that he isn't ready to face something like that yet. How could he beat a task so difficult you need to be at least seventeen if he can't even beat Ferret effortlessly?

Harry wondered what would happen if he actually did well during the first task. Would everyone start to support him if he proved he wasn't an incompetent fourteen year old out for glory?

'It wouldn't surprise me if they did.' Harry thought bitterly if his time at Hogwarts had showed him anything than that was that the student's opinion about him was extremely fickle this was especially proven true in his second year when people thought he was the heir of Slytherins.

'How could they even think that about me,' Harry thought. 'I mean my mother who died for me was a Muggleborn, my best friend is a Muggleborn and my other best friend at the time came from a family that is considered some of the biggest blood traitors out there.'

Harry shook his head as his thoughts about Hogwarts got more and more negative.

'It seemed such a wonderful place,' Harry mussed in as he thought back to his first encounter with Hogwarts, but now that he thought about it … his near deaths, the students that kept forming opinions about him without knowing him and even the teachers weren't all that great.

Sure there were some who seemed competent, but as Harry had no idea what level the other schools taught it was hard to say if they were actually competent or just not as bad as their colleagues. There really was no denying there were some people who shouldn't have been allowed to be in the Hogwarts staff.

First and foremost was of course Snape. Harry wasn't even sure why the man was a teacher in the first place it seemed he absolutely detested children.

Hargrid was another teacher that was rather questionable. Harry liked the man, he really did, but as long as the large man's definition of what was dangerous was so different from the average person Harry wasn't so sure if he should be allowed to teach. At the very least he should be given a curriculum about what to teach and when.

Then there was Binns. Harry had to admit he might be a bit biased here as he never liked History, but at least his teacher at primary school managed to keep the lessons interesting, but here the lessons were so boring that you literally fall asleep.

Of course there was Trellweny, the divination teacher, who according to Dumbledore only managed to make two true predictions in her entire life and prophesised the death of a student at least once every year. That shouldn't be allowed right? A teacher telling a thirteen year old he is going to die?

And what about Filch. The school's caretaker and local Squib. Harry wasn't even sure why the man was hired in the first place. The level of dislike the man had for the students was only barely surpassed by Snape and the man usually spend hours cleaning things harry knew could be cleaned in a matter of second with magic. So why did they hire a child hating person without magic?

Harry mentally reprimanded himself for getting side-tracked again and told himself to focus on his immediate problem. ''I just wish that I knew what the task was,'' Harry muttered quietly to himself.

''Dobby can help the noble Harry Potter sir.'' A squeaky voice squeaked suddenly.

Harry's eyes who had been shut so far, while he had been thinking shot open and he blinked in surprise at the sight in front of him.

''Dobby?'' Harry asked in surprise. ''How did you get here?''

''Dobby was cleaning the toilets when the great Harry Potter sir entered and went into this evil place. Dobby followed the great Harry Potter sir to make sure he was safe.''

''You were following me?'' Harry asked in a surprised tone. ''How the hell did I not notice you?''

''House elves are good in remaining unseen, great Harry Potter sir.''

Harry closed his eyes again feeling a headache coming up. After several seconds staying like that he decided to just go with what was offered and he opened his eyes again and said. ''You said you could help, how?''

''Dobby knows!''

''Know what, Dobby?''

''What the great Harry Potter sir wanted to know.'' Dobby exclaimed happily. ''Dobby knows what the first task is!''

XxX

''So let me get this straight you and the other elves have to deliver food to dragons and you heard one of the caretakers discuss what the task is?'' Harry asked after he had listened Dobby explain about the 'overgrown lizards'.

Dobby nodded his head enthusiastically. ''Dobby heard professor Moody talk with one of the handlers.'' He said before relaying what was said.

'I have to retrieve a fake egg from a nestling mother dragon?' Harry thought. 'Are they bloody insane!'

''You wouldn't happened to know how to do that, would you?'' Harry asked hopefully.

Dobby shook his head sadly. ''If it wasn't for the bad cup then Dobby could have done what was necessary to protect you …''

Harry couldn't help the shudder he felt when he heard the little elf's words. He decided he really didn't want to know what the elf had planned.

After a moment of silence Harry spoke up again. ''Hey Dobby could you do me a favour?'' After he received enthusiastically positive reply Harry continued. ''You know my friend Hermione Granger?'' Again he received a positive reply. ''Can you tell her what you told me if can you find her alone?''

Dobby blinked in surprise. ''Dobby can do that, but doesn't the great Harry Potter want to tell her himself? Dobby could get her here!''

Not even waiting for a reply the elf had already popped away and it was just moments later that the elf reappeared with a bewildered looking Hermione who shrieked when she saw the giant dead snake.

'Huh I dint know he could do that.' Harry thought absentmindedly.

Hermione meanwhile had whirled around and spotted Harry. ''Harry! What's going on where are we!''

''Hello Hermione, it's good to see you too. I see that Madam Pomfrey managed to fix you teethes … oh and we are in the Chamber of Secrets.''

''We are in the Chamber of Secrets.'' Hermione asked blankly.

Harry nodded.

''And that is the Basilisk you faced?''

Another nod.

''Oh.''

Harry couldn't help but smile at her baffled look of his friend. If she had brought to any other place so suddenly and especially by a house elf of all things then she probably would have been a bit more vocal than this. He patted to the space next to where he was sitting and said, ''Could you please sit down I have learned what the first task is.'' Before thinking. 'And it's probably not a good idea to be standing when you hear about it.'

XxX

''They want you to do what!'' Hermione shrieked after Harry had explained what the task would entail. ''Of all the irresponsible, dangerous and moronic things they could come up with.'' Hermione exclaimed clearly pissed off.

Harry felt slightly touched that she would get so angry at authority figures for him and was glad at least one person in this school still supported him unconditionally.

Hermione tried to reassure him by saying. ''Don't worry, Harry, the first task is still some time away. I am sure we can find something you can use.''

Harry nodded not sure who she wanted to reassure, him or herself. They remained in silence for a couple of moments both deep in thought before Harry spoke up again. ''Hey Hermione, do you think things will get better after the first task?'' Harry asked thinking back to his previous thoughts about Hogwarts.

Hermione looked at Harry in confusion and asked. ''What do you mean, Harry?''

Harry started to explain about his earlier thoughts while Hermione listened. Several emotions flashed through her eyes as she listened, but she didn't interrupt.

''You are thinking about leaving Hogwarts aren't you?'' Hermione said sadly.

While he hadn't it voiced it out loud that idea had indeed passed his mind. ''I'm not sure, Hermione.'' Harry admitted honestly. ''Hogwarts was my first true home, but after everything that happened these last four years …'' Harry's voice broke off at the end words weren't necessary Hermione knew what Harry's life had been at Hogwarts.

''What do you plan to do, Harry?''

Harry shrugged. ''I don't know really.'' He admitted. ''I already missed over three years of Muggle education so I doubt I could go back there. You said there were other Magical schools out there,'' Hermione nodded. ''Are there any magical school in English speaking countries or is there some easy way to learn another language?''

''As far as I know there are no know magical ways to learn a language easily. Otherwise there wouldn't have been such a language barrier during the world cup. As for your other question, yes there quite a number of other magical schools where they speak English.''

''How good are they?'' 'Harry questioned.

Hermione shrugged. ''Hogwarts is the largest school in the UK and is known as the best, but nowadays it can hardly be considered an accurate assessment.''

Harry raised an eyebrow. ''Oh, why not?''

''When I heard about the tri-wizard tournament I did a bit of research.'' Hermione said and Harry rolled his eyes.

Ignoring her friends behaviour Hermione pressed on. ''When the tri-wizard tournament was first founded, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Dumstrang were considered to be the top three schools in Europa. Of course their pride couldn't allow them to share the title of 'the best' so the three heads of school arranged a completion of sorts. Each school would have one representative of their student body, a champion who would compete in trials against the other champions. The winning school earned the title of 'the best school,' until the next tournament. Hogwarts earned the title when they won the tournament nearly three hundred years ago.''

''That is it?'' Harry asked in bewilderment.

Hermione shrugged. ''I am not saying that Hogwarts isn't the best, but it's just impossible to tell. Anyway, are you serious about going to another magical school.''

Harry was silent for some time and Hermione let him to his thoughts when he spoke again a glint of resolve could be seen in his eyes. ''Yes, I think that is for the best.''

Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment before saying. ''I think you should contact whatever school you choose to enrol in as soon as possible.'' Upon seeing the boy's confused look Hermione added. ''Even though officially you will be Hogwarts second champion if you manage to win and enrol in another school next year than they will receive a fair share of publicity thanks to it. They might even be willing to give you a private tutor.''

Harry wasn't sure why he was the one to ask it especially to Hermione , but he asked it anyway, 'Isn't that against the rules?''

Hermione got a defiant look on her face as she replied. ''If that is what it takes to keep you alive then I couldn't care less about any rules.''

Harry smiled genuinely at his friend at hearing this, how far had the girl come that had once uttered the words. 'I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed.'

After a moment of silence Harry spoke up again. ''What School do you think I should go?''

''Like I said there aren't any official comparisons between the schools out there, but I bought a book describing the various magical schools in the world while I was in France. Maybe that will help you find one.''

XxX

Today was November the twenty-fourth and it was the day of the first task of the Tri-wizard tournament and Harry was sitting alone in the tent that once housed all four champions, but Harry was the only one left as the other two already went and the last one was currently facing it's dragon.

The time between his talk with Hermione and now had been usefully spend. He and Hermione and quickly come to the conclusion that if he wanted to get away from his reputation, then he had to get away from the UK as Voldemort was mostly only active there. He might still be famous for surviving a killing curse in other countries, but at least they hopefully didn't care to much about him beating Voldemort.

After going through the book for a bit Harry found one school that really appealed him. It was called the Salem institute of Magic and like Hogwarts was a boarding school, but unlike Hogwarts they also offered summer courses which meant he could stay there the entire year!

This also solved one of the bigger problems Harry would face if he left Hogwarts. After all as a minor he needed permission of his guardians to attend a new school and the Dursleys hadn't wanted him to attend Hogwarts either. The only reason he was allowed to attend was because they were threated.

So convincing them to send him to another magical school would be hard, Harry had feared. That was until he heard of Salem as he knew that the Dursleys would never pass this opportunity to never see him again up.

With Dobby's help (who was more than happy to help the great Harry Potter sir) Harry had contacted Salem and explained the situation. As Hermione had predicted they indeed were willing to help him, but even she had underestimated how willingly they were.

As it turned out Salem (and varies other schools) had requested to join this completion to show the prowess of their students, but they were snubbed, as they were told they completion was only for the best school out there.

So now that the opportunity was presented for them to have a unofficial champion they made sure he was ready.

It was quickly hammered out that if Harry could get out of Hogwarts then they would arrange for a tutor that would be waiting in Hogsmeade who would teach Harry for as long as he had time.

As there was so little time before the first task Harry and his tutor, a strict but fair woman in her late thirties named Angela Summers decided that Harry instead of going to his lessons in Hogwarts would just remain in the house she had hired instead of going back and get tutored full time.

Harry grimaced as he thought back to his teachings. Due to the short time and what he would be facing it was decided to utilise each and every second available so to do that Harry had to take a potion that would allow him to go without sleep, it was a highly addictive potion and pretty bad for his body if he consumed it for too long periods of time, but this was an emergency as it was either this or face a dragon – a mother dragon while underprepared.

When Harry showed back up at Hogwarts he could easily say the teachers hadn't been pleased with him.

Not only had he missed some event called the weighting of the wands he was also missing for over a week.

They also didn't appreciate his comment of. ''Not that any of you seemed to care, but I was making preparation so I won't die,'' When they asked where he was and what he had been doing since he had been missing.

Harry honestly couldn't really care anymore when they threatened him with docking of house points and even possible suspension if he didn't answer after all he was bound to compete so they couldn't expel him right now and he was already a pariah in the school, so the threat of losing house points didn't bother him to much either.

Luckily for Harry he had arrived just before the task so they had only a short amount of time to chew him out.

Harry was brought from his musings when he heard it was his time.

Stepping into the enclosure, Harry surprised many by what he was wearing. The only rule regarding clothes for this task was that you weren't allowed to wear something enchanted, the other three champions had worn their school uniforms, but not Harry.

He showed his status as Salem unofficial champion by proudly wearing their coats of arms on his back (he had made sure no one had seen it until he was alone in the tent. Every witch and wizard with even the slightest bit of intelligence could see the action for what it was, a slap in the face for Hogwarts.

XxX

Harry gulped as he stared at the Dragon he was supposed to get passed. He was very glad the dragon seemed to be more than happy staying where she was observing the new intruder and seeing if he would form a threat to her eggs.

He felt more than a little bit relieved at this he had half expected the dragon to immediately attack him so this was a welcome surprise.

After starring the dragon down for a moment Harry began his plan. Due to the lack of time the plan was relatively simple; Make the dragon stop seeing you a target and distract him so you can get the egg.

Beginning his plan Harry first cast a Disillusionment charm on himself then a scent removing spell. Learning both spells had taken some time, but the end result was hopefully worth it.

'And now for the distraction,' Harry thought.

Aiming his wand at a nearby rock Harry transfigured it into a dog. This particular spell had been by far the hardest to master as this was considered N.E.W.T. level transfiguration, but in the end he managed to do it.

He then cast two spells he already knew, but would never have thought of using in this task himself. First he used a overpowered Engorgement Charm to make the dog bigger and then he used the Gemino Charms several times to make copies of the dog.

Even though the dog wasn't real Harry still felt a bit bad for the spells he cast on it and the fact that it was bait, but that didn't stop him from getting the hell away from the large dogs as they had caught the dragon's interest and he had lunged forward the first dog already in his mouth. It seemed that multiple large dogs were a more attractive snack than one scrawny fourteen year old human.

Seeing that the dragon had left his nest unprotected Harry sprinted over to the eggs quickly casted the same spells that hides him on the egg and quickly made his way over to the exit.

XxX

After Madam Pomfrey had checked him out and concluded to her astonishment that Harry was healthy, Harry made his way out of the tent, but before he reached the mouth of it , two people had come darting inside - Hermione, followed closely by Ron.

"Harry, you were brilliant!" Hermione said squeakily as she engulfed him in a tight hug. When she finally let go Harry saw that there were fingernail marks on her face where she had been clutching it in fear. "You were amazing! You really were!"

Harry grinned happily back at her. He had done it, he had faced a full grown dragon and survived and hopefully he now had more time to train before the next task so that he at least could sleep.

His grin however disappeared when he realised that another had come with Hermione, instead a frown appeared as he turned to Ron, who was very white and staring at Harry as though

he were a ghost.

"Harry," he said, very seriously, "whoever put your name in that goblet - I – I reckon they're trying to do you in!"

Harry gave the redhead a cold glare he couldn't believe the boy had the gall to arrive after the task and say that to him. Didn't he tell him this right after he was chosen as a Champion?

''Caught on, have you?" said Harry coldly. "Took you long enough."

''Harry, mate, I am sorry.'' Ron mumbled.

Harry snorted. ''You are sorry?'' Harry asked rhetorically. ''You are sorry for what?'' He didn't give the redhead any time to answer as he continued his little tirade. ''Sorry for abandoning me when I needed you most? Sorry for not believing your supposed best friend?'' Harry gave Ron one last glare before walking past him. ''Save your words for someone who still cares Ronald because I don't.''

After having said his parting words he walked out of the tent and waiting for him there was McGonagall who still looked less than pleased with him.

XxX

A half hour had passed since the first task and Harry was sitting in one of the guest chairs of Dumbledore's office.

After leaving the tent McGonagall had allowed him to see his score (41 points) and he was told what the egg was. After that the professor had informed him that the headmaster wanted to speak him and Harry decided to just get it over with.

So now he was here sitting in Dumbledore's office facing a disappointed looking Dumbledore an angry McGonagall and a emotionless looking Snape.

''Now Mr Potter can you please tell me where you have been for the last couple of days?'' Dumbledore asked.

Harry shrugged. ''After careful consideration I have decided to transfer to another school. Unfortunately due my status as second champion of Hogwarts I am not allowed to transfer right now. ''

It was amusing for Harry to see the reactions to his words. Both McGonagall and Dumbledore looked shocked wile Snape's mask was broken as a barely contained look of glee appeared on his face. Who knew Harry could say something that could actually evoke a positive reaction from the greasy git?

Deciding to twist the knife a bit Harry added. ''Fortunately this turned out to be a blessing in disguise … as it turned out Hogwarts level is much lower than the other school so I hired a tutor to catch up to what is expected of my year and the school was kind enough to provide one. That is where I was with.''

''Mr Potter you- you can't ..'' McGonagall stuttered seemingly not sure herself what she wants to say.

An eyebrow rose as Harry looked at the deputy with a questioning look. ''I can't what exactly? Transfer schools? Believe me all I need is permission of my guardians … which by the way they were more than glad to give.''

''But your parents would have wanted …'' She countered.

''Me to be happy.'' Harry finished, the unspoken fact that he would need to transfer for that to happen didn't need to be voiced out loud.

''Harry my boy,'' Dumbledore began. ''What possible could make you want to transfer out of Hogwarts.''

Snape snorted. ''I don't even know why we are here discussing it. Potter made it clear he wants to transfer out and if those Mugles agree then it's a closed case.''

'Of all the people to help me.' Harry mussed. 'Him seeing me gone must really please him if it means he is willing to be on the same side of me.''

''I agree with Professor Snape.'' Harry added, saying the words he never thought he would say. ''This decision is made by me and is supported by my aunt and uncle, you have no right to question that.''

''Even if that is true, Mr Potter, you can't suddenly leave the castle like that.'' McGonagall said, ''As long as you are still a Hogwarts student you will have to attend class.''

Harry shrugged again. ''And if I don't?'' Harry asked rhetorically. ''I already told you the only reason I am still here is due to that I can't transfer as long as I am a Hogwarts champion on the same note I can't get expelled, but other than that? You could assign detentions which I will pretty obliviously not attend, or you can deduct points which I don't care about. As of right now … I am a Hogwarts student in name only. I will be here for the second and third task, but other than that you will not see me again.''

''Harry I don't understand why would you possibly want to leave Hogwarts?'' Dumbledore questioned.

Harry snorted and stood up. ''Why don't you think about it yourself. Who knows if you can give me the correct answer next time we meet and take steps so that those conditions aren't there anymore I might reconsider transferring out.''

Harry then walked up to the door and opened it. ''If you have any urgent messages before the second task then Dobby the house elf can find me. You can use him to send a message.''

Having said that Harry left the office.

XxX

Harry woke up the next morning after his first night sleep in what felt like a very long time. He was in his bed in the room he was assigned in the cottage he and his tutor shared, he got ready for the day and walked downstairs for breakfast.

To Harry's surprise instead of only seeing his tutor, a girl who Harry estimated to be his age was also sitting at the table eating breakfast.

When she heard him she looked up and flashed him a smile. ''Hello Harry, my name is Lillian Summers nice to meet you.''

Harry returned the smile a bit uncertain and offered her a hand. ''Hello Lillian, are you related to professor Summers by any chance?''

His tutor, Angela Summers spoke up. ''Yes she is, she is my niece, and your fellow year mate if you join the fifth years next year.''

''Nice to meet you then,'' Harry said to his future year mate while wondering why she was here, but finding it to rude to outright ask it.

''Anyway Harry, you made the news of your local newspaper.'' Angela said as she tossed today's copy of the Daily Prophet to Harry.

On that front page was a large large picture of Harry as he was ready to face the dragon below it was a single article titled; **Boy-Who-Lived leaves Hogwarts for foreign school.**

Upon reading this Harry's first thought was 'This classifies as front page news?' this was shortly followed by the thought about how the Prophet even knew. Considering while he did wear the school coat of arm he never actually stated that he was transferring out in public and it was doubtful the teachers would go to the press.

Harry mentally shrugged, it didn't really matter anyway what the article said and breakfast was calling him. So he put the paper down and stated eating.

''So what are the plans up to the next task? ''Harry asked after swallowing a bit of his food.

''Well now that we have more time we are obviously stopping with the potions.''

Harry nodded, he already was warned what the consequences were of long term use of the potion.

''Our first priority is of course solving the clue from your egg, as soon as possible.'' Angela began and Harry nodded in agreement.

''Obviously once we know what the task is, we will prepare for that. Other than that I will try to teach you a good portion of the fourth year Curriculum and maybe a bit from the higher years if I deem it useful. I also will spend some time every day duelling you.''

Harry gulped, he had no experience whatsoever with duelling and he knew by now that the older woman was a rather formidable witch.

Either not noticing or not acknowledging her student Angela continued. ''By duelling regally you will develop several things that will also be useful outside of duelling. Such as your reaction speed, your balance, your casting speed … well you get the picture.'' Angela said before adding with a wry smile. ''Besides from what you have told me about your track record, you will probably find yourself in a duel sooner or later.''

XxX

''So you are probably wondering why I am here don't you?'' Lillian asked as the two of them were doing the dishes. Harry nodded and the girl spoke up again. ''To be honest it was because I was curious.'' The girl admitted. ''When my aunt suddenly leaves a couple of weeks into the school year to teach some foreigner, my interest was piqued, especially when I learned it was for the Tri-wizard tournament. ''

After a moment of pause she continued. ''Auntie is one of the best teachers I have and that isn't because we are family. I and a couple of others were curious what she was able to teach you in such a short period of time and convinced our Headmistress to let us attend the task – you did really great by the way – anyway after the task was over the others went back to Salem while I wanted to stay a bit longer with my aunt.''

Harry nodded, he assumed the girl had arrived after he had gone to bed. ''So what are you going to do now?'' Harry asked assuming she would leave for her school today.

''I am actually staying here.''

''What? Don't you need to attend lessons?'' Harry questioned.

Lillian snorted, ''And who do you think is here? I wasn't kidding when I said my aunt was one of the better teachers of Salem. I made a deal with the Headmistress I stay here, get taught by my aunt and floo Salem occasionally to take tests. Believe me, not many would want to miss one on one tutoring by my aunt, myself included. ''She said before adding with a teasing grin. ''Besides our unofficial champion needs a duelling partner who is a bit more on his level before he faces someone who is far out of his league.''

XxX

Two weeks had passed since the first task and Harry could definitely say he was pleased with the progress that was made.

It hadn't taken long for the Egg to be figured out … okay they might have cheated a bit by having a pensive memory of him opening the egg send to Salem and let the teachers there listen to it (their equivalent for Care of Magical Creatures recognised the sound and send a letter back how they could listen to it), but if a little cheating would keep him alive then so be it.

The trio inhabitants of the cottage had quickly conducted that the task would be held in the one place were Merepeople were close by Hogwarts although they weren't exactly sure on the '_We've taken what you'll sorely miss,' _part of the riddle.

That of course didn't mean that they couldn't prepare for the task. The first problem was how to breath underwater.

Fortunately for Harry he didn't have to come up with a solution himself. Instead he had a full trained witch with him who at the top of her head could name several ways for a human to stay underwater.

The top three ideas were human transfiguration, some plant called Gillyweed and a Charm called the Bubblehead Charm.

The first option was quickly discarded as the human transfiguration that was necessary to stay underwater for such a long time was so complicated that most N.E.W.T. level students couldn't even do it.

The second option was considered, but in the end it was decided to go for the Bubblehead charm. While Gillyweed did exactly what he needed to do it was also rather expensive and given how much time he had to master the Bubblehead charm it was decided to go for that option. If worst came to worst they could always still buy the Magical plant.

He had also started duelling with Lillian and Harry had only one word to describe their first session …. Humiliation! While he never had any really instructions in duelling (Lockhart didn't count) he hadn't expected to be so outclassed by someone his own age.

What Harry hadn't been told was that while part of Lillian story of why she was there was true there was also a part she didn't tell him and never would.

Sure the story of getting tutored by her aunt and doing her tests back at Salem was true, but what wasn't was told was that her aunt had specifically asked her to stay behind.

To put it simply she was here to motivate Harry, especially when it came to duelling. If her aunt had duelled Harry and trounced him then he would probably chalk it up to experience and think he can't catch up, but with someone his own age (especially with the occasionally taunt thrown in) hopefully the boy's competitive streak would kick in and he would strive harder to get better and damn he sure did. After only two weeks he could already keep up with pretty well. She was still the superior duellist, but that was only because she too was improving due to the constant duelling.

Lillian hadn't minded being away from the school too much. Being related to a although well liked, rather strict teacher wasn't always easy and ever since her year mates had discovered her Metamorphmagus magical ability, she had been getting more and more looks she wouldn't mind being away from for a while.

It didn't hurt that she and Harry had become pretty good friends after spending so much time together and while he didn't speak much about his time before Hogwarts (she suspected it wasn't the greatest considering how his eyes usually clouded over) he did talk to her about Hogwarts and explained a bit about why he wanted to transfer and in turn she told him a bit about her life.

Harry also scored some points with her when he didn't make a big deal about her Metamorphmagus abilities when he found out (other than asking if it could be learned). Through he had a rather amusing reaction when she first used the ability in one of duels.

XxX

_Harry was facing off Lillian once more, he had improved since his first defeat he knew that, but he also knew he still had a long way to go. One of his major problems (or so he has been told) was his temper when he was taunted, like now. _

''_Come on, Harry.'' Lillian taunted as she held her wand to the side with a devious smirk on her face. ''I am not even using my wand, don't tell me you still can't hit me!''_

_raising__ his wand and taking aim with considerable speed, Harry muttered. ''_ _Stupefy,'' A red beam of light left Harry's wand and rocketed toward his opponent head._

_What happened next came to a total shock to Harry. Lillian briefly closed her eyes while a look of co__n__centration graced her face and then she suddenly seemed to shrink at least a head! Making the spell miss completely._

''_What the …?'' Harry muttered as stared at the shocking sight of a fourteen year old girl who now looks like an eight year old, but still with the same devious smirk plastered on his face. The teen turned child quickly raised her wand and fired a full body bind on her gobsmacked opponent._

_Swaggering up to the now downed boy, Lillian turned back to her normal appearance and bend down over he fallen opponent , so she was face to face withHarry._

''_Rule number 8, Harry: never let an enemy's action lower you guard.''_

_Harry groaned, oh he knew about the Summer's rules of Duelling all right, well at least the ones he__ had__ broke__n__. For some reason he wasn't told about them until he broke one of them. So far he had a__l__ready broken rule 1: never shout a spell, but instead do it non-verbal or if you can't do that do it at least not at a volume you opponent can hear, Rule 2: never stop moving, Rule 6: don't let you em__o__tions cloud your judgement, rule 11: don't be predictable in your spell choice and now apparently he had broken yet another rule._

_Harry had no idea just how many rules there were and for some reason he thought it was better not to ask. Harry also quickly learned not to break the rules again (trough he had difficulty with rule 6) as Professor Summers acting as some kind of mad drill sergeant stopped the duel every time he broke a rule and had him do twenty press-ups and twenty sit-ups. He wasn't sure what it had to with his ma__g__ical training, but it sure as hell worked as an incentive to not break the rules. Especially after a couple of sessions were he broke the rules multiple time in a single session. _

XxX

A smile graced Lillian face as she thought back to that experience. She and Harry were currently listening to her Aunt as she lectured them on a new transfiguration spell, but her mind wasn't entirely there she was still thinking about back then. She wondered how Harry would have reacted if she had used her Metamorphmagus abilities differently to district him.

Despite the fact she wasn't entirely comfortable with the leering of some of her classmates. She couldn't deny it would probably be amusing to watch Harry if she had used her ability to improve some of her 'assets'.

In the end it was for the best that she hadn't done that. Her aunt had been there to oversee their duel and she also didn't want things to turned awkward between her and Harry. She and Harry got along well and she didn't want to ruin that by doing something stupid.

She was brought out of her mussing when she heard a pop and saw that the House elf she had been introduced as Dobby had arrived. This was not the first time she had seen him as the elf had appeared several times carrying letters from a friend of Harry, some girl named Hermione. She had never met the girl, but from the times Harry mentioned her in his stories she seemed nice enough.

XxX

''Dobby?'' Harry questioned, ''Do you have another letter from Hermione?''

Despite the older girl's dislike of using House Elves she had come to understand this was the only way for her to contact her friend as the property Harry was in was warded against Owls. As such she had used the elf several times to send Harry letters (and paid him money each time).

Several things had been discussed between them ever since Harry left the castle. Hermione had been in contact with Sirius using the Gryffindor common room floo informing him of Harry's decisions as Harry himself had been unavailable. She had also told him that after Harry left her friendship with Ron had been declining ever since Halloween and it only got worse after the first task. Due to that she had admitted she was considering following Harry at the end of the year. She was still discussing it with her parents, but there was a distinct possibility that Hogwarts would lose one more future fifth year at the end of the year.

A couple of letters also described the reaction of the Hogwarts students upon reading about Harry leaving. Most thought that it was some kind of joke and that no sane person would probably leave Hogwarts. Others were glad that the Boy-who-lived would leave. While others demanded someone do something to stop 'the saviour of the Wizarding world' form leaving the UK.

Upon opening this letter however Harry found out that it wasn't from Hermione, no instead this letter was from the Deputy headmistress of Hogwarts Minerva McGonagall. He hadn't heard from any of the staff so far so he wondered what they wanted.

When Harry started to read the letter a surprised look appeared on his face, this look quickly turned into fear until it finally turned into terror.

''Are you okay, Harry?'' Lillian asked in concern as she had seen his reaction.

Harry shook his head, still white in the face and handed the letter over to Angela, who quickly read it and started laughing.

''What?'' Lillian asked in confusion and a touch of irritation.

''It seems, Harry here,'' Angela began with a smirk on her face. ''As a champions Has to attend a Yule Ball on Christmas day with a date'' Harry turned if possible paler, ''And he and his date have to participate in the opening dance.'' What little colour was left on Harry's face disappeared and most would probably mistake him for a Ghost.

''That can't make me do that right? RIGHT?'' Harry nearly begged.

Angela let out another bark of laughter while Lillian got a unreadable look on her face. ''Don't worry Harry I studied the rules of the tournament, after I started teaching you and the only thing you are required to attend are the three task. You don't have to attend things like that 'weighting of wands' you said you missed or this ball.''

''Don't you have someone you want to attend the ball with, Harry?'' Lillian asked, still with her unreadable expression plastered on her face.

Harry's mind briefly flashed to the pretty fifth year Ravenclaw Seeker, Cho Chang and then for some reason his mind flashed to the image of a smirking Lillian Summers.

Harry shook his head, ''No, I don't,''

Lillian wasn't sure why, but a small smile graced her face.

''If that is the case why don't you join me and Lillian at Lillian's home during Christmas. We usually have a little family get together then and I am sure my brother and sister-in-law would love to meet my student.''

''I couldn't intrude on your family time like that.'' Harry immediately said.

Angela shook her head. ''You wouldn't be intruding at all, Harry, I have told them a bit about you and they already expressed their wishes to meet you someday.''

What she didn't say was that she like her niece had detected some signs that the boy's childhood was less than pleasant. This came blatantly obvious when she observed his reaction when she confirmed you could stay at Salem the entire year long.

After all the training she put him through she thought he at least deserved a happy Christmas for once. Besides her brother had indeed expressed the wish to meet him, that was definitely the truth. The fact that his desire to meet Harry only intensified after Lillian had come to live with them might be a small detail.

XXX

Spending the Christmas holidays with the Summers had been an interesting experience for Harry. Christmas holidays back at Dursleys basically meant three things; more food to make, gifts for Dudley and more time for Harry-hunting. Hogwarts was definitely a step up, but spending the day with a family (even though he wasn't part of said family) was definitely different.

Despite the occasional narrowed eyes directed to him by Lillian's father Harry had been welcomed warmly in the Summer household by the various family member.

After introducing him to her parents Lillian introduced him to an elder woman named Grandma Jones who kept calling him James for some reason.

She then introduced him to her eight year old sister who she introduced as 'the brat', but whose real name was Samantha Summers.

Harry spend the vacation mostly relaxing as Angela had forbidden him to train as apparently he needed rest from time to time. He had looked strangely at his normal driven teacher when she had told him that until she told him they were going to work double as hard after the holidays were over.

Harry also experienced his first countdown to new year with the ensuing firework show. It was an awe-inspiring sight for the fourteen year old Harry. The people at Private Drive never really fired decorative fireworks during the day and Harry would be shoved into his cupboard long before midnight. So now that he could see it he enjoyed it fully.

The 'Happy new year' kiss on the cheek from Lillian was definitely a good way to start the new year. It was even worth the glare he received from Mr Summers.

XxX

Today it was the day of the second task and the stands surrounding the Black lake all awaiting the last champion who hadn't been seen since the first task. A fact which had caused quite a bit of conflict as a lot of people had expected to see him at the Yule Ball perhaps earlier to arrange a date.

Unaware that a lot of people's thought were on him Harry and the two Summers ladies had just passed the Hogwarts gates and were on their way to the Black lake.

''Are you ready, Harry?'' Lillian asked a bit unnecessary in Harry's opinion as she had watched every step of his training herself, still he appreciated the concerned tone her question was laced with.

Harry shrugged, ''I would feel a lot better if I knew what I would be looking for down there, but other than that I am confident in what I have been taught.''

Talking about that made him think back at just what he had been taught. First and foremost he had mastered the Bubblehead charm to such a degree that he could easily keep it up for over an hour even when he was distracted. He also mastered a couple of much needed warming charms. Seriously what kind of idiotic came up with the idea to have people jump in the lake in February? His last preparation for the task was learning what spells he knew would work well under water and a couple of new ones.

Of course he also continued his normal studies and his duelling sessions. Both of them were going well, even though he had discovered five more new rules of the Summer's rules of Duelling. Professor Summers had told him that at this level he should already be able to easily pass his fourth year tests if he had to take them now. As for duelling well … she said after the second task he **might **be good enough to scratch her in a duel if he were to team up with Lillian. This of course pissed both him and Lillian off and made them more than motivated to kick the elder woman's ass.

Harry was brought out of his thoughts when he noticed he was there and after saying goodbye to his two companions who went to sit in the stands Harry walked over to Judges table were the three other champions were also standing.

''I am here.'' Harry announced as he quickly took in the people sitting at the Judges table. Four of the five seemed to be annoyed with him and to Harry's surprise Crouch wasn't there instead his seat was filled by Percy Weasley.

''You are late.'' The redhead said in such a tone that implied that Harry committed a capital offence instead of just being tardy.

''A wizard is never late, Mr Weasley, nor is he early he arrives precisely when he means to.'' Harry said trying to sound wise and failing miserably as he repeated a quote from a book Lillian had gifted him for Christmas.

Most of the people who had heard him looked at him strangely while a small minority laughed and smiled.

While Harry had been talking Ludo Bagman had been moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet Harry was on the very end of the line, next to Krum, who was wearing swimming trunks and was holding his wand ready.

Harry glanced to the side and saw that the other three were already wearing swimming wear (his gaze might have lingered a bit longer at Fleur who wore a one-piece swimsuit that looked damn good on her.) He sighted and mentally cursed the organisers again as he applied a warming charm on himself before shrugging of his robe, leaving him only in his recently bought swimming trunk.

Harry felt a bit self-conscious standing there in front of all those people, but at least it beat swimming fully clothed.

''All right, Harry?" Bagman whispered from his position he hadn't left after he had moved Harry a few feet farther away from Krum. "Know what you're going to do?"

Harry gave the man a blank stare. ''It's February and I am about to jump in the freezing cold lake and I am participating in a tournament that was abolished due to its high death count and you ask me if I am okay?'' Harry asked rhetorically.

Seemingly lost for words, Bagman gave Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze and returned to the judges table. He then pointed his wand at his throat as he had done at the World Cup, ''Sonorus!'' He said and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One . . . two . . . three!"

The moment the whistle sounded Harry applied the Bubblehead charm on himself, an action unknown to him was mirrored by two of the other champions, but Harry didn't know this as he had already moved forward into the water.

The moment he stepped into the water his dislike for the organisers grew immensely. Despite the warming charm on him it was still damn cold! Harry quickly layered another warming charm atop the other one and things got a bit more bearable. When he reached deep enough water he jumped forward and dived underwater.

XxX

Harry had been swimming for a while now and so far things had gone relatively well. He hadn't found the merepeople yet (where he assumed whatever they took would be), but on the other hand he hadn't encountered anything he couldn't handle. The only thing he had faced so far were a couple of Grindylows whom he had quickly dealt with.

''How are you getting on?'' Harry suddenly heard.

Swirling around he saw the last person he expected to see in the Black Lake; Moaning Myrtle, the ghost that usually haunts the first floor's girls bathrooms.

Myrtle looked amused at his reaction and she said ''You want to try over there!" while pointing slight of Harry's originally course. "I won't come with you. ... I don't like them much, they always chase me when I get too close …'''

Harry didn't move, but instead gave her a questioning look which she interpreted correctly. ''You want to know why I am helping you?'' She asked to which Harry nodded.

The ghostly girls amused expression left her face as a more serious one appeared. ''I – I hear a lot of rumours – I heard how the others treated you – I guess I felt I compelled to help a kindred one. Plus you killed the beast that killed me so I guess you could consider this my thank you.''

Harry studied the ghost for a moment longer and seeing her looking sincere he gave her a genuine smile and a thumbs-up before swimming off in the direction the girl had indicated.

He swam for what felt like twenty minutes, then, at long last, he heard a snatch of haunting mersong.

''_An hour long you'll have to look, And to recover what we took...''_

Harry started to swim faster in the direction of the song.

''_. . . your time's half gone, so tarry not Lest what you seek stays here to rot. ...''_

_Harry shuddered at Hearing that and kicked it up another notch._

He then saw them, the merepole, they had had greyish skin and long, wild, dark green hair and were armed with Spears. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Harry as he swam past, but Harry ignored them for the most part. He wasn't stupid enough to completely disregard a potential threat, but for now they seem non-hostile.

After swimming for a couple of moments Harry entered a sort of Village and in the middle of the village there was a large open square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson crafted from a boulder. Then to Harry shock and anger he saw that four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.

Anger he hadn't felt in several months coursed through his veins as he realised _'what you'll sorely miss' _referred to persons.

'How could they do this?' Harry raged, 'Wasn't it bad enough to put the Champions in danger, but now also other people?'

His anger only intensified when he saw just who had been tied up. They were Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Cho Chang and a child who bore more than a passing resemblance to the French champion.

'Not only have they dragged Hermione, the one person who had always supported him, into this, but also a small child?' Harry thought in outrage. The fact that his former best friend and Crush were also there didn't even seem to register in Harry's anger filled mind.

Harry looked at his watch that had been spelled before the task to continue working even underwater and saw that he still had twenty minutes until the task was over.

Harry thought for a second and then came to a decision he swam to the girl who logically was his Hostage to rescue and aimed his wand at her bindings before casting one of the few spells he was forced to learned to do non-verbal. A cutting curse sprang from his wand and released Hermione from her bindings.

At once, several pairs of strong grey hands seized him. Half a dozen mermen were pulling him away from Hermione, shaking their green-haired heads, and laughing.

''You take your own hostage,'' one of them said to him. ''Leave the others ...''

'What are they talking about!' Harry thought furiously

''Your task is to retrieve your own friend . . . leave the others ...'' The same mermen said.

Harry had enough he was pissed and those mermen weren't making any sense. Aiming his wand at a nearby rock he fired a wordless Reductor Curse turning the rock into dust.

The effects were instantly the merepeople stopped laughing and looked Harry warily. Those looks turned to fear when Harry aimed his wand at them. Harry swam back to Hermione's position and wrapped an arm around her side. This time the merepeople dint interfere as they still were looking at Harry with fear. He then swam over to the child. There was no way he was going to leave behind here. If his assumptions about her relation to Fleur were true then he was sure she wouldn't mind if he saved her. He might not know the older girl well, she didn't seem to be the type to put the task before family.

This were things were getting a bit harder while he rather not take his wand away from the threat he needed it to cut the ropes, but it seems that his fears were unneeded as the merepeople remained unmoved the moment he removed his wand from them and cut the girl lose. They even remained unmoved when he slung his other arm around her and kicked off. It seems his threat of using magic had them cowed enough that they wouldn't bother him anymore.

The trip back up was easy and uneventful. He had decided to go just straight up and see where he would come up. So after using he feet to get up for over ten minutes he finally breached the surface, surprisingly close to where he had to go.

The moment he surfaced both the girls opened their eyes.

''Harry?'' Hermione questioned. ''Why did you rescue me?''

Before Harry could answer the rather confusing question the little girl spoke up. '' Qui êtes-vous? Où est ma soeur?''

Luckily for Harry who hadn't the faintest idea what the little girl was babbling about she heard her sister who had been standing at the shore Harry had surfaced close by. Standing around her were the five judges of the event.

"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?"

''Fleur!'' the little girl called seemingly glad to see a familiar face.

''Come on let's go to the shore,'' Harry said to the one girl who could actually understand him. With Hermione's help it was easily to cross the last bit of water and soon they were standing on the shore.

The moment they were standing there the two Delacour sister had embraced ''It was ze grindylows . . . zey attacked me ... oh Gabrielle, I thought... I thought..."

'So the girl did speak English,' Harry thought before suddenly Madam Pomfrey was upon him with a blanket in her hands. She then wrapped him so tightly in a blanket that he felt as though he was in a straitjacket, and forced a measure of very hot potion down his throat making steam gushed out of his ears.

''Why did you safe her, boy?'' Karkaroff barked while pointing at Hermione. From the corner of his eyes Harry could see the students had left tribunes and were now standing close by observing the spectacle with interest.

''What are you talking about? Isn't she the one I had to rescue?'' Harry asked genuinely confused.

''No Mr Potter you hostage was Mr Weasley, Ms Granger was Mr Krum's hostage.''

''Ron? Ron is what you think I will sorely miss?'' Harry asked with a raised eyebrow. ''He and I haven't been friends since Halloween. Heck we have only talked once since that day. How could you possibly think that I would chose a traitor over someone who has supported me? So you can't blame me for apparently taking the wrong hostage.''

''I agree with the boy,'' Madame Maxime said. ''You assured us that redhead boy would be the one Mr Potter would miss most. He can't help it that you don't know your students well enough.''

Normally the half-giant wouldn't have helped him, but her champion had already lost anyway and the boy did bring back one of her future students. Besides it was always amusing to get one over the older head of school. ''I suggest we discuss how we will judge this among ourselves after the other two champions return.''

''Fine!'' Karkaroff spat as he stormed back to the judges table.

Harry watched him go before he turned to Hermione who by now was always wrapped in a blanket and apologised. ''Sorry for taking away your chance to become a damsel in distress who needs to be saved by her knight.'' Harry joked good-naturedly. Hermione had informed him per letter she had gone to the Yule Ball with Krum, but Harry hadn't made the connection that she might be his hostage at the bottom of the lake.

Hermione shot him a look that clearly stated she wasn't amused. ''I told the headmaster you and Ron weren't friends anymore with Ron, but he didn't listen and Ron did nothing to dissuade his line of thought.''

''Oh?''

''He seemed to be glad to be able to take part in the task, even if only as a hostage.''

''And you?'' Harry asked referring to the fact she too was a hostage.

Hermione shook her head. ''When I heard about what the task was it was definitely not the most appealing thing out there, but then I saw Gabrielle – Fleur's hostage – and realised that if I refused then someone else had to go in my place and who knew who they were going to choose? Perhaps someone even younger than Gabrielle. I couldn't have that on my conscious.''

Harry nodded, he could understand that reasoning, then suddenly Fleur stood before him. From the corner of his eyes Harry saw that her sister was now under the care of Hogwart's resident nurse.

''You saved 'er,''She said breathlessly. "Even though she was not your 'ostage."

''Yeah,'' Harry said a bit uncomfortably. Say what you want about Fleur, but there was no denying that she, still wet from the lake and clad in only a swimsuit was one of the most breath taking sights Harry had ever seen and he was very glad he still had his blanket wrapped around him. ''I just couldn't leave such a young girl there like that.''

Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek. ''Regardless of your reasons, thank you I will never forget this.''

A all too familiar amused chuckle could be heard from behind Harry and Harry already knew what he would see before he had turned around.

Standing there was a smirking Lillian Summers. ''Coming out of the lake with two girls isn't enough for you, Harry? Do you really need a third?''

''Why, jealous?'' Harry replied jokingly.

Lillian gave him a coy smile. ''Who knows?'' She then engulfed him in a hug, which was kind of award for Harry as he still had his arms within the blankets. She then whispered in his ears. ''You did great Harry.'' Harry's shudder that followed had nothing to do with the cold.

Hermione (and a large part of the student body) looked at the duo's interaction with interest. She assumed this girl was Lillian Summers, a girl Harry had started to mention more often in his latest letters. It was kind of weird to see the boy who had been always been rather shy around girls act like that. Harry also seemed more self-confident than how he was before he left. Hermione smiled it seems this girl had at least some part in that.

XxX

In the end Harry's score was pretty average. He had gotten a six from a pissed of Karkaroff (he had already given a five to Fleur and Harry had clearly done better), a nine from Madam Maxime, a seven from Dumbledore (apparently he failed the task due to rescuing the wrong hostage, but he still did well enough to earn two points more than Fleur), Bagman gave him a ten (again) and Percy gave him a five for not rescuing the right hostage, (or he was pissed his brother had to be rescued by Cedric?), resulting in earning him a total of thirty-seven points.

The crowd didn't seem to happy that the one who had appeared first (technically second) with two hostages got scored so low, but there was little that could be done about it.

After the task was over the champions were informed that the last task would be held on the twenty-fourth of June and that they would be informed what the task is, a month before it.

Dumbledore had also approached Harry again to convince Harry not to transfer out. Harry gave him one chance to answer the question he asked after the first task, but after it became clear he couldn't answer him Harry walked away without saying another word.

XxX

The next morning Lillian walked downstairs after having enjoyed her shower and found her Aunt already sitting at the breakfast table. ''Morning,'' She greeted before seeing her aunt's amused expression. ''Something funny?'' She questioned as she took her seat and poured a cup of Coffee.

''You made their paper.'' Angela replied. ''Here,'' she said as showed her the front-page of the Daily Prophet.

Lillian took a sip of coffee and stared at the page that was held in front of her. Due to the early hour it took a moment or two before it registered what actually she was seeing and when she did she nearly spit the hot beverage out.

''What the hell is this?'' She near yelled as her face turned red and she read the title of the Front-page article. ''**Boy-Who-lived seduced away from Hogwarts?'' **She slammed the paper down. It was way too early for this.

Angela took the paper back. ''I really like the picture. Do you think I should send it home? I am sure my brother would love to see it.''

Lillian near growled, ''Don't you dare!''

Angela was about to reply when Harry walked into the room in the middle of a yawn. ''Morning ,'' He muttered before he noticed the tension in the room. ''Something wrong?'' He inquired.

''No noting is wrong,'' Lillian quickly replied before giving her aunt a prominent glare.

Harry shrugged, it was early in the morning and he hadn't eaten yet. If she said there wasn't anything wrong than he believed her.

''So … what are the plans now?'' Harry asked after he had some food in his system.

Angela was silent for a moment seemingly in thought before giving her answer. ''Unlike the last two tasks we don't actually know what this one entails.''

''But he will be told a month in advance.'' Lillian added.

Angela nodded. ''Yes and at least he will have more time now than back with the first task.'' Those days had been hard on her. If it hadn't been a life or death situation then she would never take all those potions. ''But what to teach you until then,'' She mused out loud. ''At the very least we will continue both your normal lessons, I also want to see how well you two manage to do in a duel against me.'' She fell silent for a moment before asking. ''Tell me Harry do you know what Occlumency is?''

Harry shook his head and replied that he had never heard of it.

''It is no real wonder you don't.'' Angela replied. '' Most people don't start to learn the art until after they finish their formal studies and even then it takes years to learn. As for what it is …. basically Occlumency is the magical art to protect your mind.''

''And you want me to learn it?'' Harry questioned.

Angela shook her head. ''Not exactly, trough it is never too early to start learning it. No what I think is more important for you to learn are emotion control exercises that are part of the Occlumency training regime. You admitted yourself that you have occasional bouts of anger of which you are prone to act on. I think this will be good for you.''

''So if I do those exercises I can control my emotions better?''

''Better yes, completely no. Don't expect to turn in a Vulcan just because you do these exercises, but they still will help you greatly.''

Harry wasn't sure what a Vulcan was, but he got the general gist of it. ''If you think it will help then I will do them, I trust you to know what to do.''

Angela smiled at her student. If her hunch about his home situation is correct then the Boy probably wouldn't trust easily so it was definitely nice to hear he did.

Lillian also smiled at Harry. She knew he didn't trust easily. Especially when his very first friend had betrayed him when he needed him most. Harry would never admit it out loud, but she could see when he had talked about it that that it had hurt him a lot.

XxX

Today was June the twenty-fourth, the day of the third and last task of the tri-wizard tournament and Harry had just woken up, but he didn't really feel like getting up.

Today was finally the end of the Tri-wizard tournament for better or worse today it ended and Harry was more than happy to see the end of it.

Quite a bit had happened since the second task. For one he learned what the third task was. It was a maze of all things, filled with traps, enchantments and creatures.

There wasn't much that they could do to prepare him for this other than have him study up on magical creatures and improve his arsenal of spells, curses and jinxes.

As for his other two extracurricular parts of his study?

Well Harry could definitely say one thing after Lillian and he duelled Professor Summers for the first time …. and that was that the woman definitely hadn't been arrogant when she had told him they would need both of them to even lay a scratch on her.

Harry winced as he thought back to that beat down and their he had thought his first duel against Lillian had been bad … Not only that, but apparently there was a whole part of the Summer's rules of Duelling even Lillian hadn't known about that pertained the aspect of duelling while outnumbering your opponent.

But regardless of how bad it was, like with facing Lillian for the first time Harry started to slowly improve. The gap that had to be grasped was much larger (and that gap would probably stay for a while), but both he and Lillian were improving.

His Occlumency exercises had actually been going pretty well. It was slow, but defiantly steady process. Harry usually did his exercises after his duelling sessions. He felt it was the easiest to do these exercises when his body was tired (and battered).

Suddenly the door to Harry's bedroom was slammed open and a voice that sounded way too young to belong to any inhabitant of the house called, ''Harry!''

Harry turned his head in the direction of the door and to his surprise, standing there was Samantha Summers and before Harry even realised what he was saying he muttered, ''Brat?''

'Damn,' Harry thought as he saw her pout, he remembered she didn't like to be called that, but after hearing Lillian saying it so often it just flipped out.

He sat up and gave the pouting girl a smile. ''Good morning Samantha,'' He said, ''Sorry for calling you that I thought it was your sister at the door.''

It was complete lie, but the young girl seemed to like what he said as her pout turned into a full blown smile.

''Good morning Harry!'' She said brightly.

Harry glanced to his alarm clock on his bedside table and saw that it was seven a.m. 'oh you have got to be kidding me,' Harry thought. 'Who can be so happy at seven a.m.?'

Obvious to Harry's demeanour Samantha continued to talk. ''Mom and I are to cheer for you tonight isn't that great!''

''Don't you have school?'' Harry questioned.

The young girl suddenly looked a bit sheepish. ''Uh well I might have convinced mom to call the school and tell them I am sick.''

Harry stared blankly at her. He could point out that the task wasn't until tonight, but decided against it. He was not the girl's parent (thank god) and if they allowed it then that is their responsibility, besides it was nice to have some support.

''Thanks for the support,'' Harry said sincerely before shooing the girl out of the room so that he could take a shower.

XxX

The day spend with the four Summers females in Hogsmeade had gone far faster than Harry would have liked it and before he knew it they were already walking toward Hogwarts.

When they reached the stands surrounding the Maze, which were still pretty empty, Angela stood in front of Harry, looked him straight in the eyes and said in serious tone. ''Well this is it, Harry, the last hurdle, if there really is someone out there who wants you hurt by entering you in the tournament then this is their last chance so stay focused.'' She then surprised him by giving him a brief hug, ''It has been great teaching you Harry. You have me proud with your progress.''

''Thank you professor,'' Harry said. ''I'm very grateful for your teachings.''

Angela nodded and went up to sit in the stands.

Samantha spoke up next. ''Good luck Harry,'' She told him with a smile. ''I'm sure you will kick their asses!'' The young girl ignored the outcry of ''Langue!'' from her mother as she dashed after her aunt.

Harry wasn't sure if the girl even realised just how much danger Harry would face in a short while. Still it was nice to see someone so confident in his abilities (even if the girl had no idea what his skill level was).

It was then the turn of the eldest remaining Summers to speak. ''Well Harry, I wish you luck … and please be careful … none of us want to see you hurt.''

Harry nodded, ''Thank you Mrs Summers.''

The woman gave on last look to her daughter that could only be described as mischievous before following her youngest daughter and sister-in-law up the stands.

''So…'' Harry said suddenly feeling a bit awkward as he turned to the last reaming Summers still standing there. The normally confident girl had her head downcast and wasn't meeting his eyes. ''I guess I see you after the task,'' He said after a moment of awkward silence before silently muttering. ''If I survive that is.''

Apparently he wasn't silent enough as Lillian's head shot up and shot him a glare that would have made lesser men run in fright. Fortunately for Harry he had in his fourteen years of life seen things much more terrifying, but still it made him flinch back a bit.

''DON'T SAY THAT!'' She yelled drawing a couple of curious glances from the people already in the stance. Her tone lowered a bit, but her voiced remained emotional. ''don't think like that, you- you will come back safely.''

''Lillian …''

''Promise me, Harry, that you will survive this.''

Harry looked to the side not wanting to give her fake promise.

Lillian grabbed his face with both her hands and pulled him close. Their faces only inches away from each other Emerald green eyes stared into Grey eyes that showed several rapidly alternating emotions . ''You will survive this tournament,'' She whispered, Harry wasn't sure if she was reassuring him or herself and remained silent as she continued whispering. '' I don't care about this tournament. I don't care about the glory of Salem, I don't care if you would come in last .. Just – just be careful – stay at the beginning of the maze for all I care – just stay safe.''

''Lillian I,-''

That was as far as he got as Lillian had closed the remaining distance between them and claimed his lips for her own.

Unfortunately for Harry before he could enjoy the moment someone cleared his throat behind them and the two teen jumped apart as if they were burned both heavily blushing.

Harry slowly turned around mentally debating what his most painful curse in his arsenal was. When he had turned around he saw that the person who just scored the second position on his most disliked persons list (Voldemort was still the undisputed number one) was none other than Albus Dumbledore.

Harry was very grateful for his emotion control exercises otherwise he would definitely have followed up on his first impulse.

''Headmaster Dumbledore,'' Harry growled in annoyance.

''Hello Harry,'' He said with before nodding toward Lillian, ''Miss, if you don't mind I would like to talk with young Harry for a moment before the task.''

The still red-faced Lillian only nodded. She hadn't planned to do that (not that she regretted it) and she definitely hadn't planned to it in front of her family (thank god her father couldn't come). And then they had to be interrupted too! This was so embarrassing!

''Come back safe Harry.'' She said before moving to the people who would no doubt take great pleasure in teasing her.

Dumbledore chuckled. ''Ah young love, such a beautiful thing.''

Harry was not amused, 'if it is such a beautiful thing then don't bloody interrupt!' Harry thought before replying in a as polite voice as he could muster. ''What can I do for you Headmaster?''

''Ah yes, like I said I would like to have a word with you before the task starts.''

Harry made the 'go on' motion.

''I have thought long and hard about what you have asked me during our conversation after the first task.''

''Yes …. and …'' Harry said feeling he had to drag the words out of the old man's mouth.

''I am afraid I still can't see any reason why you would want to leave. Your parents studied here and would have wanted you here. This is the premier school for magic with some of the best teacher out there. Hogwarts is the safest place there is.''

Harry looked incredulously at the old man he once respected above all. He then noticed the man truly seemed to believe each and every word he said.

''Like I said back in November, I am sure my parent would have been happy as long as I am happy.'' As for the safest place out there?'' Harry asked rhetorically. ''Are you serious headmaster? Do you know just how many times I nearly died? I will admit some of those are due to my own action, but far from all. As for the teachers? Are you kidding me Headmaster? I will not even waste words on this one. If you don't know how incompetent some of you subordinates are then I wonder how you can even be Headmaster.'' Harry said his little tirade before adding with a softer voice. ''I have given you the chance, but you failed, this will be the last time you talked to me as my headmaster, farewell headmaster Dumbledore.''

Having said those final words Harry walked to where he saw two of the three other champions were already waiting.

Dumbledore watched as Harry walked away. He wanted to continue arguing with the boy that his place is at Hogwarts, but legally the boy was right, as long as he had permission of his guardians than he was allowed to transfer out. He also didn't want to alienate the chosen one for when Tom came back. After a moment thought he decided to let Harry go, let him experience another school and have him realise for himself that Hogwarts is better. He could ask young Nymphadora, who had recently joined the Order to disguise herself as a student and enrol in the same year as Harry, to keep an eye on the boy.

XxX

Harry heard the whistle that signalled it was his time to enter and slowly walked into the maze. He was taking his time slowly analysing every angle for any potential threat.

After walking for twenty minutes and not encountering anything Harry got the distinct feeling something was wrong. Why hadn't he encountered anything yet? Had the other champions already cleared the path he had been following?

Then after walking for another five minutes he finally encountered something. It was some kind of odd looking golden mist that was floating in front of him.

Harry took a moment to observe the mist, but after a moment or two he had to conclude he hadn't the faintest idea what it was.

Pointing his wand at the mist, Harry muttered, ''Finite Incantate.''

Harry frowned as the general counter curse failed. He then tried another spell. ''Ventus.'' He muttered and a large gust of wind moved out of his wand, to his frustration the mist remained unchanged again.

Harry stared at the mist wondering what to do. On one hand he could just walk through it and hope for the best … Harry shook his head. That line of thought was completely idiotic for all he knew the mist was deadly. So that left only one option he turned around and choose a different direction.

After walking a couple of minutes Harry suddenly heard a scream that was definitely feminine in nature. Harry spun around to the direction where he thought he had heard the sound from, but it was impossible to pinpoint the source of the sound in this large maze then suddenly he saw red sparks appear above a part of the maze quite a bit of distance from him.

Harry sighted in relief, it seemed that Fleur would be fine. After walking for another ten minutes Harry came upon a horrifying sight, laying on the ground in front of him was the other Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory.

''Shit!'' Harry cursed as he ran to were the elder boy who was looking way to pale was laying. ''Cedric!'' He called, immediately checking his pulse as soon as he got close. To his great relieve he felt one, faint as it may be.

Harry wasted no time as he immediately shot red sparks in the sky. Moments later a nearby hedge gave away and the DADA teacher 'mad eye' Moody appeared on the scene.

''What happened here, Potter.'' He demanded to know.

''I don't know, sir'' Harry answered. ''I found him like this. Will he be okay?''

Moody grunted. ''The boy will be fine,'' He said as he cast a levitation charm on Cedric. ''Now move on Potter, you are nearly there….'' Having said those words he left the same way he came using some unknown method to make the hedges move away from him with Cedric in tow.

'He was close by the cup?' Harry thought as he continued walking. 'Why did Moody even tell him that?' Harry mentally shrugged the man probably wanted Hogwarts to win and with Cedric out of the picture that only left him.

After navigating through the maze for another twenty minutes Harry stumbled upon a creature he had only seen in books before. Standing in the middle of the path, blocking it off was a sphinx.

Harry stared warily at the creature. She didn't seemed to be ready to attack him so Harry took his time to go over what he knew about them. Sphinxes were classified as class four magical creatures and thus very dangerous. Their skin was very magical resistance, but not on the level of a dragon, but still combat should be avoided. They are vicious when they choose to attack, but most important about them is that they are guardians who give out riddles to those who seek passage.

Harry slowly walked toward the creature, coming to a stop at what he judged to be a safe distance.

Then suddenly the sphinx spoke up in a deep hoarse voice. ''You are very near your goal. The quickest way is past me.''

Harry nodded, he had expected this. ''And I have to answer a riddle to get past you?''

The sphinx inclined her heard. ''Correct, if you can answer my riddle on your first guess - I let you pass. Answer wrongly - I attack. Remain silent – I will let you walk away from me unscathed.''

Harry wondered if she would ask the world famous sphinx riddle; Which creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening? That would definitely make things more easy. Even he knew the answer to that one.

''Okay,'' He said to the beast. ''Let me hear it.''

'' _Who makes it, has no need of it._

_Who buys it, has no use for it._

_Who uses it can neither see nor feel it._

_What is it?''_

Harry blinked at hearing the riddle. He had heard it before so he knew the answer, but did they really have to use this riddle now? It seemed a bit morbid.

'' A coffin.'' Harry replied.

The sphinx smiled broadly at him and moved to the side. Harry quickly moved past it more than happy to be away from the creature with the sharp claws.

After walking for a while longer Harry encountered his biggest shock so far … standing on a pedestal roughly a hundred yards away was the Tri-wizard cup.

Harry couldn't believe it. He went in third, he had moved at a snail pace, he had only encountered two real obstacles and there was the cup? Could he actually end this tournament without suffering severe body harm?

Harry realised a moment too late that he really shouldn't have tempted fate by asking that question as, as soon he reached the Cup and touched it he felt an all too familiar tug to his navel and before he knew it he was transported away.

XxX

Harry landed roughly, but immediately shot back up wand brandished, taking in the new situation, scanning around for threats.

'Well I defiantly am not at Hogwarts anymore,' Harry thought as he noticed the absence of any mountains. 'Is this part of the task? They said get the cup and I got it so I doubt it…'

Harry's thoughts were broken when he heard someone approach. Squinting his eyes to look better trough the darkness.

Then he saw it, a figure was moving nearer, walking steadily toward him. Harry couldn't make out its face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, he could tell that it was carrying something. Whoever it was, he was short, and wearing a hooded cloak pulled up over his head to obscure his face. And - several paces nearer, the gap between them closing all the time - Harry saw that the thing in the persons arms looked like a baby ... or was it merely a bundle of robes?

It took less than a second for Harry to come to a decision of what to do … someone wanted him death … he was transported outside of the castle to the middle of nowhere … those two things resulted him in making an easy choice; stun first, ask questions later and so with speed trained by duelling for the last months Harry fired a volley of stunners spread out so that it would be near impossible to block.

Harry grinned as his spells hit home and both the man and whatever he had been carrying were hit by multiple stunners.

Harry ran over to where the downed man was and a maniacal grin spread on his face as he saw who it was. ''Well hello there Peter,'' He muttered stunning the traitor again for good measure. He then looked at the baby. 'WHAT – THE – BLOODY – HELL – IS – THAT?' Harry thought as he studied the monstrosity.

It then opened its eyes and red eyes stared at green and Harry scar started to sear with pain. The pain lasted only a moment as, as soon Harry saw it open its eyes Harry had already fired another stunner at the baby and it had slumped back down and the pain disappeared.

XxX

It was to a roar of applause that Harry appeared at the edge of the maze, but the applause quickly died down when the audience notice that the champion wasn't alone.

''Aurors!'' Harry called as soon as he landed with the still stunned Peter Pettigrew and the baby/thing.

Harry had seen the people wearing the Auror uniform sitting in the stands before the task had started and before he had travelled back he had concluded they would be his best bet for taking his two prisoners of his hand. Earlier this year he immediately would have called for Dumbledore, but his earlier talk with the man had left him heavily disillusioned with the man.

Amelia Bones, the head of the Magical Department of Law Enforcement or DMLE for short had been sitting in the stands with a number of her Aurors surrounding her. She had heard of the boy-who-lived's desire to transfer to a foreign school. This was his decision to make and normally she wouldn't be bothered by it, but she was afraid some of her countrymen wouldn't see it like that and try to convince their saviour to stay.

So that is why she and some of her Aurors attended the second and third task to make sure nothing would happen. She had faith in the Hogwarts staff that they could stop anyone pestering one of the champions, but if a mob mentally took over and a large number of people would bother Mr Potter at the same time then it was better if there were some trained Aurors there.

So that is why she was there when the boy-who-lived had arrived and she heard his outcry calling for her people. It didn't take long for her to react as she ordered her people to follow her toward the boy.

When she approach she saw that Dumbledore, her old mentor Moody and the minister himself were already surrounding the boy and that the audience was also mobbing toward the group.

''Dawis, Shacklebolt, you are with me, the rest of you form a perimeter and keep those people away.'' She barked.

When she was close enough to the group, Amelia saw that Fudge and Dumbledore were arguing about something, Potter was pointing his wand at the man that was still on the ground along with something she couldn't immediately identify and Moody … he was looking stunned? As if he couldn't believe what he was seeing?

''Mr Potter, I am Amelia Bones, the head of the Magical Department of Law Enforcement, what is going on here?'' Bones questioned Harry. ''Why did you call for my people?''

''After I touched the cup I was transported to a graveyard. As I was told the tournament would end the moment cup was found I concluded that this was not part of the task. There I encountered this man whom I assumed wanted to do me harm as I assumed he was the one who brought me to that place. I managed to stun him and that.'' He said while pointing at the baby. ''-not sure what it actually is, but it had glowing red eyes so I doubted it was something normal.''

Taking a moment to gather his thoughts Harry continued. ''After stunning them both I managed to identify one of them as the traitor of my family, Peter Pettigrew.''

Bones gasped at his response and looked closely at the downed man and saw that he indeed was the supposed dead hero. He looked distinctly older, but he was still easily recognisable.

''But how can that be, Sirius Black killed him.''

''My godfather didn't betray my parents nor did he killed the rat.'' Harry said harshly. '' Pettigrew was the one who betrayed my parents and framed Sirius. I already informed the minister of it, last year.''

Amelia swirled around to her supposed superior and levelled a glare onto him. ''Why,'' She said with a deadly calm voice. ''Is this the first time I heard of this?''

''The boy was obvious confounded.'' Fudge sputtered.

Amelia was not amused. ''That is my job to investigate, minister. You don't have the authority to judge if a witness is reliable or not.''

Fudge was about to reply when a flash of a spell along with the cry of ''Boss!'' distracted everyone.

Bones swirled around to where the Spell light had come from and saw that Shacklebolt had his wand out and aimed on another downed figure. It took Amelia a moment to realise that was where Moody had been standing …

''Boss he suddenly started to transform,'' Shacklebolt explained his reasoning for stunning the downed person before crouching down and rolling the man around, causing Bones to have the second shock of the night.

''Barty Crouch Jr!'' she exclaimed in shock.

It took her a moment to gather herself, but then she sprung in action. ''Aurors,'' She barked making the nearby Aurors spring to attention. Take Crouch and Pettigrew into custody, stay with them at all times until we know how to fake their deaths-''

''Pettigrew is a rat Animagus,'' Harry helpfully supplied, more than pleased with the way things are turning out. He wasn't sure who this Crouch Jr was, but at the very least he knew he was an imposter of some kind and that usually meant they had to hide something. Maybe it was him who put his name in the Goblet? Anyway Harry was just glad he hadn't had had too much contact with the man.

Bones didn't even pause to question why he knew this and instead continued her instruction. ''You heard the man. So make sure magic supressing cuffs are on at all time.'' She then turned to Harry, ''Can you tell me anything about that thing?'' she said as she pointed to the baby.

''I think it is magic resistant to some point as it woke up shortly after I stunned it. It also seemed to capable of using mental attacks as my head hurt when we locked eyes.''

Bones hummed and pointed her wand at it firing another stunning spell at it. ''Bell,'' She called one of her Aurors.

''Yes, Boss.''

''Bring that thing to the Unspeakable, let them have fun finding out what it is. Make sure you stun it regularly and relay what we know of it to those people at the DoM.''

''Yes, Boss.''

''Five of you, go with her.'' She ordered before turning to Shacklebolt. ''Take minister Fudge into custody.''

''Boss?'' Shacklebolt questioned.

''He overstepped his authority with the Black case.'' She replied, ignoring Fudge spluttering. ''Until we know his intentions for it we will assume he was covering for Pettigrew and is possibly even involved in the kidnapping of Mr Potter.''

''Understood, Boss.'' Shacklebolt said with a grin. Fudge wasn't exactly popular with the Auror department after all his cuts in their budget so he would gladly follow this specific order.''

Bones sighted, she just knew that the next few weeks were going to be very stressful.

XxX

''I present to you the winner of the 1994-1995 Tri-wizard tournament, Hogwarts's champion Harry James Potter!'' Dumbledore said to the assembled witches and wizards assembled in the Great Hall of Hogwarts with a slightly smug undertone as he handled Harry the cup and the money, resulting in a resounding cheer.

It had been a couple of house since Harry had come back from the graveyard and it was time for the award ceremony.

The ceremony was held in the great hall of Hogwarts which was filled with the brim with students, guests and reporters. Harry, himself stood on an elevated stage with four judges behind him and Dumbledore next to him.

''Thank you,'' Harry said causing the people to fall silent to listen to the winner's word. A Sonorus charm was already placed on all the people of the stage so he was easily heard. ''Thank you, but I can't accept this as Hogwarts's champion. The Champion of Hogwarts was Cedric Diggory. As the other heads of school so rightfully pointed out it wouldn't be fair if Hogwarts had two champions. So this can't be considered a Hogwarts win.''

A lot of muttering followed Harry's words, but he wasn't finished yet. ''That being said I do appreciate the support those few Hogwarts students have given me.'' Harry said, more out of formality sake than anything else. ''I especially want to thank two specific people in this castle.'' Everyone turned to look at the two other members of the supposed golden trio, assuming he meant them. ''Hermione Granger.'' A lot of people nodded, already knowing he was going to say that. ''And Dobby the house elf.''

Harry couldn't help, but snort when he saw the bewildered looks that appeared when he mentioned Dobby's name. ''Anyway, I as many of you know this is my last year here so I also wish to thank my tutor, Angela Summers, it is thanks to her that I am now skilled enough to join the fifth years at Salem institute of Magic.'' It was also thanks to her that he survived the tournament, but blatantly pointing out that he had broken the rules by bringing in outside help wasn't the greatest ideas. Still the implications that his skill rise came due to a Salem teacher was more than enough for most people to get how he won.

''I also wish to thank Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, Fred Weasley and George Weasley for our time as a team. It was fun playing with you people and I wish you luck finding a new seeker and a replacement for Wood … thank you.'' Having said his word, Harry stepped back.

It was at this point that heads of the other two schools stepped forward, ready to say their own last words of the tournament.

Madame Maxine spoke up first. ''First of Mr Potter congratulations on your well earned victory.'' The hall gave another polite applause.'' Now I will admit I didn't have to high opinion of you when we first met. Not only were you Hogwarts second champion, but you were also a pretty average student from what I saw when I looked into your marks, but you proved me wrong, you proved that with the proper tutelage you could truly blossom into an excellent student worthy of the title of champion. ''

Harry had to work hard not to smirk at the obvious dig of the Hogwarts teaching staff. At the same time he wondered how the hell she got to look at his marks.

Karkaroff spoke up next and he didn't even bother being subtle. ''Well congratulations on your win Potter.'' He said not partially trying to sound sincere. ''You have proven you are one of those few Hogwarts students who have some sense of intelligence. Not only did you outperform your older counterpart, but you also decided to wisely leave this school … if only you had a better heritage then you might have even done well on my school.''

Harry raised an eyebrow at the petty insult to his heritage. ''Thank you for your kind words Headmaster Karkaroff,'' Said neutrally. ''Trough I would advise you not to insult two people who are considered war heroes in this country.''

Karkaroff gave Harry a challenging look until he had noticed the hall had fallen deadly silent and a good majority of the people in the room were now glaring at him, even some of his own students didn't seem to pleased with the man's words. He huffed and took a step back.

Dumbledore was the last to speak up. ''Ah yes, again congratulations on your victory Mr Potter and I would to take this opportunity to which you good luck and to let you know that the doors of Hogwarts will always be open when you decide to return.''

Harry couldn't help but scoff when he heard the old man's words. If the man had told the door was always open for him **if **he decides to return instead of **when **then there would be no problem, but the way he spoke the man sounded like he thought he would be back sooner than later. Harry looked through the crowd and spotted Lillian standing with her family, smiling at him, he smiled back, it was highly doubtful he would return to Hogwarts any time soon.

XxX

The next couple of years were good for Harry. Dumbledore was proven wrong as Harry never returned to Hogwarts and he graduated in 1998 as one of Salem's top students.

His school experience had been a pleasant one. For once he wasn't constantly gawked at, well not much anyway. There were some awed looks directed to him due to his victory at the Tri-wizard tournament, but at least Harry felt less uncomfortable about those looks because at least he felt he had earned these, unlike the boy-who-lived crap where he became famous for something he can barely remember.

It of course also didn't hurt that Lillian and he had started dating the summer after his fourth year and even though they had their ups and downs they were still happily together at their graduation.

Hermione had also chosen to follow her friend. It had taken several Owls between her and her parent, but eventually they decided to allow her to go to the school. They however, much to her disappointment didn't allow her to go to all the Sumer courses she wanted.

Back in the UK things had also changed. Fudge was cleared of the charges of aiding in kidnapping, instead he was just proven to be incompetent and a vote of no-confidence was issued. Shortly after that Fudge left the Ministry in shame. He was replaced by Nathiel Greengrass, a man while a pureblood was not a supremacist. He was before his promotion a high ranking member of the Department of International Magical Cooperation and one of his primary concerns as the new minister was to mend the bad relations his country had with other countries. This among other things meant he had to Repeal several laws regarding magical creatures to get rid of their bigoted reputation. This of course was a slow process as people didn't react well to change especially magical people as they usually died on a considerably older age than their Muggle counterpart.

Sirius Black was also declared an innocent man after a court process that took several months. Harry had expected it would only take a couple of days, but apparently the legal system didn't work like that and things dragged on for quite some time. Eventually Sirius was released and received a monetary compensation for time wrongly imprisoned. As Harry was still at school at the time Sirius decided to take an extended vacation to recover from his time in prison. As he didn't want to live in the house he spend his youth in, Sirius eventually bought a nice new house, a house where Harry would spend several of his school vacations in.

For Hogwarts on the other hand things didn't go to well. No one could have predicted just how badly, the leaving of their most famous student affected them. Not only was the 1995 class of first year half as big as the 1994 class, also several of the higher years decided to leave, some following Harry and Hermione while others left for other schools.

As for Voldemort? The aurors did what they were tasked to and delivered him to the unspeakables … after that nothing was heard of the strange baby ever since. Not that that was weird, as the saying goes in the ministry 'whatever happens in the DoM stays in the DoM.' What was strange however were the sudden disappearances of suspected Death Eaters that happened the following years….

* * *

**Author notes:**

-Some lines in this fic came directly from chapter 18 (weighting of the wands), chapter 26 (the second task) and chapter 31 (the third task) of the Goblet of Fire book .

-Lillian Summers is a character from my one shot A typical day in the life of Harry Potter.

-I know it seemed a bit rushed a certain parts, but let's face it this fic covered an entire year, who know how large the word count would be if I dint skimp over certain parts. Still I hope you guys still enjoyed it. Heck this version is considerable longer than the first version wrote (V1 was 4k words long). The first version only had a conversation between Harry and Hermione about Hogwarts, the first task where Harry easily completes the task (with some minor flashbacks to his training) and finally a scene of Harry having his first fifth year class at Salem (with some flashback covering the rest of fourth year). Lillian also only appeared once in the original fic and that was when she welcomed him to Salem. After rewriting certain parts I decided to give her a bigger role and from there other things got expanded … and well here is the result.

-And before anyone begins about magical guardians, that is a fanon concept than was never mentioned in the books.

-Just something I wondered after writing the Christmas vacation part, but do they fire any fireworks on New Year's Eve at Hogwarts in the books? I mean I can't remember they do , but what is New Year's Eve without fireworks?

-As for the LotR reference the quote actually came from the movie (which wasn't out at the time). The book was published, but I don't own a copy of it and so I don't know if the quote was also in it or if it was a movie only thing.

-Translation French to English according to Google translate

Qui êtes-vous?= Who are you?

Où est ma soeur? = where is my sister?

-I honestly don't know if the scar would stop hurting if Voldemort was stunned. For the sake of this story it did.

-For those wondering why Moody transformed earlier than in canon is because Harry hadn't been running around the maze. He in fact moved quite a bit slower. (one of the reasons he dint run into Cedric and Krum). Moody also cleared more obstacles for Harry as he had the time to clear them out.

-I had some difficulty deciding Harry's skill level. I made him realise he would most likely die if he didn't shape up and give it his all in training and I gave him a private tutor. So he should have improved greatly, but at the same time I didn't want to overpower him.

-For those wondering what happened to Voldemort at the end … well that depend if I write a sequel for this or not. If I don't well then let's just say that the unspeakables are badass and babby!Voldemort was not. If I do well let's just keep it at that Harry hasn't seen the last of his nemesis.


End file.
